Sunday, December 26, 2010

In a mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt. In another bowl beat egg yolks slightly. Beat in milk and oil. Add egg yolk mixture to flour mixture all at once. Stir just until combined but slightly lumpy.

In a small bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Gently fold beaten egg whites into flour and egg yolk mixture. leaving a few fluffs of eff white. Do not overmix. Makes approx 5 waffles.

1/2 C butter
1/2 C buttermilk
1 C sugar
1T karo syrup
1/8 t salt
Mix in large(syrup expands when baking soda is added) saucepan and boil for 3-5 min.
Turn off heat and add:
1T vanilla
1/4 t baking soda
Stir until foam decreases and serve on pancakes.
**To make more of a caramel flavored version, keep the heat on med while stirring to decrease foam. Stir constantly to avoid any burning and take off heat as soon as it is thickened and a little darker in color. About 5 more minutes.

Spread butter on dough, sprinkle with sugar and pudding powder mixture. Roll up and cut rolls with floss approximately 2 inches apart to make 15 rolls. 3 across, 5 rows. Let rise for an hour or more if needed and bake at 375 for approximately 15 minutes. Frost while warm.

**Makes 2 sheets with 15 rolls each. Cut recipe in half for one tray of rolls.

Stiffly beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt. Sift the four together with baking soda and ground ginger. Put the sugar and butter in a pan over some hot water (bain-marie) and stir until the mixture has melted and is no longer gritty. Add the egg yolks and beat for about 4 minutes. The mixture should be lukewarm. Remove from heat and beat again for 4 minutes either with a hand mixer or pour into electric mixer. Dissolve the molasses in the milk and add this to the egg mixture stirring it in gradually. Then blend in the flour and mix carefully and well, preferably with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Finally add the stiffly beaten whites, folding them in lightly with a spatula. Grease a pudding basin or charlotte tin and sprinkle a little chopped ginger on the bottom. Pour in to mixture, cover and steam for 2 hours on the stove in a stock pot. Unmold and serve with hot caramel sauce and whipped cream.

Peel and cut potatoes into even sized pieces. Should be large, around the size of an egg.

Place peeled and sized potatoes into a suacepan and cover with cold water. Add some salt and bring to a boil. Once boiling, simmer for 10 minutes.

Drain potatoes in colander.

Heat oil (just determine amount of oil needed according to how many potatoes you use) in roasting pan until very hot but not burning. Carefully place potatoes in fat, turning to coat each one with oil. Return the roasting pan to the oven and roast until golden brown and crisp, turning the potatoes 2 or three times. Roast approximately 45 minutes.

Oil or spray popover pan. Preheat oven to 400 and set rack in middle of oven. Preheat popover pan in oven for 2 minutes. Blend flour, salt, eggs, milk and melted butter until mixture is the consistency of heavy cream, about 1-2 minutes. Blender works great. Batter should be used at room temperature (important for puffing) but can be made ahead of time and stored in refrigerator. Place 1 small piece of butter in each cup and place back in preheated oven until butter is bubbly, about 1 minute. Fill each cup 3/4 full with batter and bake 20 minutes. Reduce temp to 300 and continue baking 10 minutes. Best right from the oven, great with gravy and roast or with butter and jam. Makes 12.

Salt and pepper roast. Brown the roast on all sides in a little oil if needed. Place in 200 degree oven at least 10 hours before eating time. After an hour turn down heat to 175. Drain drippings to make gravy. Shreds perfectly.

Gravy

Pour drippings into a fat separator. Skim 1/3 C fat off top and discard rest. Thicken with flour to make a rue. Bring to a bubble. Add drippings and more water or bouillon if needed for flavor and quantity.

Coarsely chop apple. Combine apple, almonds, cranberries, brown sugar and cinnamon, mix gently. Stir in butter just until ingredients are moistened. Carefully cut rind of brie off top exposing cheese. Then carefully cut brie in half horizontally. Place rind side down on baking sheet, covered in parchemnt. Spoon half of apple mixture onto bottom half of brie, spreading evenly. Top with remaining brie half, the side up that has had rind removed. Spoon remaining apple mixture over top. Bake 12-15 minutes or until cheese is soft and just begins to melt. Serve with bread and assorted crackers. So good during holidays! Very festive!

* I always double the recipe and buy the big brie from Costco.
**Picture before being baked.

Mix this all together and bake in a 9 x 13 cake pan at 350 for 35 mins. or until completely done.
Meanwhile make some cream cheese frosting ( I just used the Better Homes and Garden's which is...)

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING
6 oz cream cheese
1/2 C butter (softened)
2 t vanilla
4 1/2 C powdered sugar
Mix cream cheese, butter and vanilla until smooth. Add powdered sugar gradually.
When the cake is done, and cooled just a bit, but still warm, crumble it into a bowl and add about a cup to cup and a half of frosting and mix with electric mixer or kitchen aid. You want it doughy, not crumbly. Once it is cool enough to work with, shape into whatever size ball you prefer. Put in the fridge or freezer to chill them well.

Melt white dipping chocolate (like the disks or white chocolate chips) in a pyrex or glass bowl in the microwave, and dip the cold cake balls in the chocolate. Place on parchment paper.

For a cute factor, when all the balls are covered in white chocolate, dye the leftover chocolate a light orange. Put it in a zip lock bag and snip a tiny hole in the corner. Drizzle orange chocolate across each ball several times creating fun lines.

**The cake bites pictured are white cake mix with almond flavored buttercream frosting. You can mix and cake and frosting flavor you like. Just add the frosting a little at a time because the buttercream seems to melt a little quicker than the cream cheese frosting.

Preheat oven to 375 and butter an 8 inch round cake pan. Line the bottom of the pan with a round of parchment paper, and butter the paper too.

Put the chocolate and butter in a medium microwavable bowl. Microwave on high for 30 seconds at a time, stirring often, until just smooth. When the mixture is smooth, add the sugar, stirring well to incorporate. Set the batter aside to cool for 5 minutes. Then add the eggs one by one, stirring well after each one. Add the flour and stir to mix well. The batter should be dark and silky.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for about 25 minutes, or until the top is lightly crackled, the edges are puffed and the center of the cake looks set. It is done when center jiggles slightly, if at all.

Remove the cake from the oven to a cooling rack, and let it cook in the pan for 15 minutes. Carefully turn it out of the pan and then flip it onto a serving plate, so that the crackly side faces up.

Place a sheet of aluminum foil ovet the pan, and place a large, flat plate on top of the foil (or small sheet pan), facing down. Hold the cake pan and plate firmly together and quickly, carefully, flip them. The pan should now be on top of the plate, with teh foil between the. Remove the pan and parchment paper. Place the serving plate gently on cake. Wedging your index finger between the plates to keep from squishing the cake, flip them so that the cake is now right side up. Remove the foil.

This cake can be kept at room temp, sealed in plastic wrap, for up to 3 days, or it can be refrigerated for up to 5 days.

**Best of frozen and then brought to room temperature for serving with whipped cream.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Boil together to soft crack stage (or hard crack if you like it harder). Pour into a buttered cake pan. When cool enough to handle, but still quite hot (the hotter the better, the longer you can pull it.), pull until lighter (the lighter the better) and glossy. When you can't pull it any longer, stretch out on greased counter top and cut into pieces. Wrap in wax paper, or toss with powdered sugar.
**16 minutes and 30 seconds in my microwave in an 8 C pyrex bowl is perfect!

**Every Christmas we waited for this special treat! Mom always made it when we were at school so we never really knew if we were getting any. It was guarded like a priceless treasure! It's so delicious how it enters your mouth hard and slowly melts into a creamy, sweet morsel! Now I make a couple batches and take it in the car while we look at Christmas lights. I always had a hard time waiting for Christmas morning!

Mix soup with water (1/2 or 1 can). Combine all ingredients and put in roasting pan. Cover with lid and put into oven at 250 for 4-5 hours. Be sure there is enough liquid so that it won't dry out. This recipe can be increased to the number who will eat it, more meat, veges, etc. Whatever fits the taste buds.

**This recipe comes from Patty Edwards who set me and Hans up on our first date. We love her! She would make this stew on a BYU football game day and it would be put in before the game started and would be done when they got home!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Butter bundt pan or spray with Pam. Place rolls in pan in a single layer. Blend together pudding mix, brown sugar, and cinnamon. Sprinkle over rolls, covering each one. Use all of mixture. Pour melted butter over all. Cover pan with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Next morning, remove cover from pan and place in cold oven set at 375. Bake about 30 minutes or until sugar is well dissolved and bubbly. Turn out onto a cake plate.

** Sticky Buns and I have a love hate relationship. I love them more than almost anything, but I hate that I can't seem to get them right. Here are a few possibilities, my oven is too big and takes too long to heat up. So I either under cook them and they are doughy, or I over cook them and the "sticky" part becomes so hard that we can barely chew it. I'm working on it. Arrg!
**The last two times I've made these, I make them very late and leave them out on the counter....dough cooks better and the sticky is sticky, not hard as a rock!

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Mix until stiff. Should be enough for one house. (7 houses...8 batches with quite a bit left over.)

Snow
(Ground Cover-dries shiny and hard)

1 C sugar
1/3 C water
1/4 t cream of tartar
2 unbeaten egg whites

Heat sugar, water and cream of tartar over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Place egg whites in mixer and turn mixer on. Slowly drizzle in sugar mixture and beat for 4 minutes on high. Enough to cover 2 grounds or one roof and one ground. (7 houses-5 batches)

In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium heat. Add jalapeno, onion. Cook, stirring until all the onions are soft, about 5 min. Add corn and tomatoes, cook 5 more minutes. Add the cumin and cook another 5 min. Add the chicken stock, bring to a boil and simmer 10 min. Add the grilled chicken breast and fresh cilantro, heat through and serve.

2. Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles. Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it; sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

3. Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball. Generously coat a flour sack towel with flour, put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour. Fold towel over and let rise for about 2 hours. ( I have also used a rising basket and it worked great, still flour generously.) When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

4. At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees. Put a 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enameled, Pyrex or ceramic) in oven as it heats. ( I used a dutch oven until I splurged on a french enameled pot.) When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven. Slide your hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up; it may look like a mess, but that is O.K. Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed; it will straighten out as it bakes. Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 10-15 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned. Cool on a rack.

Cream together shortening, sugar, molasses and water. Sift together flour, spices and salt. Add dry ingredients to shortening mixture and mix well. Dough will be stiff. If dough is still crumbly, add a T of water. Chill at least 1 hour. Using a pastry brush and solid shortening, and grease mold. ( I use Pam.) Press dough into the mold. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for approximately 25 minutes or until golden brown. (When mold is already hot from previous baking, bake for 22 minutes.) Flip house pieces onto cooling rack. It is better to bake gingerbread a day ahead to allow for hardening.

Remove the turkey from the roasting pan and set aside to rest. Leave the drippings from the turkey in the pan and place the roasting pan over medium heat. Add the broth and water at the same time. Whisk to combine, scraping the bottom of the pan until all of the bits have come loose. Cook for another 2 to 3 mins. In order to reduce the mixture slightly. Transfer the liquid to a fat separator and let sit for 5 minutes to allow fat to separate. Return 2/3 to 3/4 C of the fat to the roasting pan and place over meidium-high heat. Discard any remaining fat. Add the flour and whisk to combine. Cook, whisking continuously, until the mixture starts to thicken and become smooth, approximately 2 to 3 mins. Once this happens, gradually add the liquid back to the pan and whisk until smooth and you have reached your desired consistency, approximately 5 to 6 mins. Remember, your gravy should be slightly thin in the pan as it will thicken once you serve it. Add the herbs and whisk to combine. Season with salt and pepper.

Note: According to the Gravy's flavor, I've had to add more water to dilute the salt flavor (When I brine the turkey, sometimes I don't rinse it well enough and the salt is too strong.) Wonder flour is great to thicken the gravy after doing this.

Heat oven to 375, place pie shell in oven, if not already warm. Melt butter, mix in sugar. salt. Beat in eggs, then corn syrup and vanilla. Heat to 130 or until mixture is shiny and warm to the touch. Remove from heat and stir in pecans. Pour into warm pie crust. Bake until center feels set yet soft, like gelatin, when gently pressed, 50-60 mins. ( I personally like it cooked until it's a little firmer than jello.) Transfer to pie rack, let cool completely, at least 4 hours. Serve room temp with whipped cream or ice cream.

Sprinkle a tablespoon at a time over flour mixture and let sit for 5 minutes. Mix with fork and work as little as possible. Roll out. Makes one double crust pie. Bake as directed. For single pie crust make sure you use a fork to poke holes all over crust to allow air to escape so bubbles don’t form.

Note: I've only ever used a pastry cloth for my pie crusts...they work great, but if you don't have one, I've heard people using wax paper or parchment....whatever works.